Felicity Jones Learned to Skin a Goat for Train Dreams Scene That Was Cut from Film: 'All Worth It'

Train Dreams assembles an impressive cast for a quiet, personal tale. Its A-list actors, though, didn't all meet each other until they began promoting the film.

"We've only just met today," Felicity Jones points out in a grouped interview inside the PEOPLE/EW and Shutterstock studio at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 7.

She's signaling to costars William H. Macy and Kerry Condon, adding, "We all had separate scenes with Joel." After Condon says, "We're getting on great, everyone's nice," Joel Edgerton jokes, "I feel like I'm running a dating agency: 'And they're getting along well!' "From director Clint Bentley, Train Dreams is based on a novella by Denis Johnson and follows a logger and railroad worker Robert Grainier who "leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century," per a synopsis.

Edgerton, 51, found that the indie's small-scale production allowed for an "epic canvas" to tell an "extraordinary" story about an ordinary man. Set throughout Idaho and Washington, the Australian actor-producer says they took as "minimal amount of equipment as needed" and kept the crew small while filming in the wilderness."They were great roles for us actors," says Macy, 75. "I mean, when you blow up a car or shoot someone [in a movie] it's mostly technical. And in this it was all about us. Just looking at each other and telling the truth, talking to each other. And that's pretty swell."

Irish star Condon, 42, who recently starred opposite Brad Pitt in F1, says she found "strength" through embodying her character. "She is a very independent woman at a time when there wasn't independent women. What I learned about myself, I suppose, was that: strength in solitude. That's what I really liked about her."

Spending time in nature was a highlight for Jones, 41. Her "resourceful" character spends lots of time "alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere."

Jones "really liked the idea of doing this film because I live in London, quite a busy, urban area, and it was really nice to go out and shoot in the Pacific Northwest and just go out and be in this beautiful scenery," she says. "So much of the film is about a love of nature."

The Oscar nominee learned some new skills through the project too.

"I love that I got to skin a goat. I spent quite a lot of time practicing skinning a goat — and then it never made the film! So it was all worth it," she adds with a laugh. Macy says, "The goat is still dead, though." Jones jokes, "Yes, I'm sorry. There was a goat sacrificed for the film."Simulating the early-1900s lifestyle was a fun opportunity for the cast. Edgerton enjoyed the "dirt and denim" of it all versus the "ironed and tailored" looks he'd have on a different project.

"My grandfather and great-grandfather worked on the railroads, and my great-grandfather was a farmer. And that's where our family was headed," says Edgerton."My father just happened to get distracted when he was on his way to becoming a farmer by some friends who were like, 'You know you'd make a lot of money if you were a lawyer?' The course of our family sort of, you know, our lineage became more cerebral. Through my work I'm allowed to pretend I'm someone living a life like my great-grandfather did. I think I feel a real kinship to that."

Train Dreams is in select theaters Nov. 7, then streaming on Netflix Nov. 21.

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